The scourge of Child Trafficking
Posted by Janice Scheckter on 22 July 2024, 15:35 SAST
Introduction
The enormity of the problem of enslavement of fellow humans is a worldwide problem that manifests as forced labour, forced marriage, forced prostitution, organ harvest, human sacrifice and in many other forms. The International Labour Organisation Report 2017 estimates that there are forty million victims of modern slavery in the world. It is most prevalent in Africa, with 7.6 per 1000 people becoming victims. Rampant poverty is one of the drivers of modern slavery.
Background
Trafficking in Uganda covers both adults of both sexes and children. It is more unfortunate for children as they may be maimed for life and are often killed. Recently, young women have also been targeted for kidnap, rape and murder. Women and young girls are also trafficked for prostitution. Trafficking is not limited to children and women. Men are trafficked too.
Trafficking is both internal and external and mainly for the same purposes. On the domestic scene, business companies place advertisements of availability of house girls (maids). Some maids are children who have been sent by their parents or guardians to earn an income, after receiving token payments from such businesses. The maids are then deployed to whoever it may concern in domestic servitude, with no follow-up on what happens to them after, and on whether they are properly treated or paid. Some are even sold into prostitution, without due regard to their age.
There is a new twist to the enslavement of children. Parents and guardians, who are on the street as beggars, send their children to beg for stipends amidst dangerous traffic congestion around major cities and towns. Children may also be kidnapped to remove their body parts for ritual sacrifices.
On transnational traffic, reports abound of Ugandans who are lured abroad (mainly in the Middle East) with promises of jobs, only to be trafficked for sexual slavery or become unpaid and mistreated labourers. Some are mistreated to such an extent that they commit suicide. Concerning children, they are adopted after luring their parents with false information, and the parents only realize later that their children have been taken from them for good abroad.
Source: https://www.pas.va/en/publications/scripta-varia/sv138pas/bossa.html
